PIMX Official support thread

[JP Schriefer]

Oh I see. So looks like SC4PIM will only deal with CAM buildings when we are dealing with growable lots, right? I thought that maybe if I moved the CAM folder out of my plugins folder it would give me the option to go only to stage 8, but well...nope.
But doing a CAM file is so simple as this? I just need to set the right filling degree and it's all good? If it is I'll make sure to add both versions from now on.
I'm sorry if these questions sounds so dumb, I really don't understand a thing about modding. 

[xxdita]

PIMX was designed with CAM in mind, so the lot stage suggested will be more in tune with CAM than vanilla SC4. But you can always adjust the lot stage in Reader, once it's created in PIMX, along with any other fine-tuning you may need to do.

[JP Schriefer]

Thank you very much for the informations, xxdita!

[JP Schriefer]

Oh I see. This is going to be very useful because I'd like to make both versions to my creations from now on, and definitely reduce the occupant size is the best option for that. Thank you very much, fantozzi!

[xxdita]

No no no. Don't ever shrink the LOD. You can adjust the filling degree, if necessary, but that's totally different.

The vanilla 6000 demand is also not a hard cap on how much capacity a building can have in order to grow, just a maximum between stages. So a stage 8 building can have up to 6000 more capacity than a stage 7, though it must be 1.5x the capacity of the stage 7 in order to grow at all.

[JP Schriefer]

Huum but changing the occupant size is ok to make non CAM buildings, right?

[xxdita]

Huum but changing the occupant size is ok to make non CAM buildings, right?

Occupant Size can be seen in PIMX as the box around the visual model. This is determined as the model is being created and exported. It's really not a good idea to adjust Occupant Size willy nilly, as it can create other problems, including immortal lots. If you need to modify the model for any reason, there are programs better suited to that. The Occupant Size (LOD) has nothing to do with CAM.

Filling degree is the percentage (in decimal) of volume the visible model consumes of that invisible box. PIMX starts with a default of 0.5 (50%). Maxis PIM will give quite similar occupancy to the PIMX default filling degree, it's some of the other stats that can be screwy, like garbage production and water use.

[xxdita]

Using invisible buildings kinda defeats the purpose of using a tool designed to give accurate stats the way PIMX does. Farms can be more forgiving, as they don't upgrade, but I feel that's all the more reason to give them accurate stats to start with.

No no no. Don't ever shrink the LOD. You can adjust the filling degree, if necessary, but that's totally different.

Sorry, yes, of course. This was indeed missleading, I changed the wording in my post. Not to change the LOD of the model file but the occupant size which is generated from the LOD by pim-x.  So each time you create a bulilding or prop from the model in pim-x or recalculate from the model, the occupant size will be rewritten and overriden by the size of the LOD.

I must confess, all of my farms have virtual LODs with manually adjusted occupant size- and all models being props. For many years I'm working this way- let's hope I didn't break the game for hundreds of players.

Again, no. There very few valid reasons to manually alter the Occupant Size. There is certainly nothing in the PIMX User Guide about doing that.

There is the option to Rebuild Occupant Size from Model. If you've followed the directions in the User Guide to create the building desc to start with, then this isn't necessary. If you are updating an existing lot, then this would be a good first step. But even then, you should pay attention to changes made, especially for width and depth.

I need to get around to checking your LEX uploads anyway, to certify them or not. So let's take this one as an example.

360 Main Street and Four Seasons seem fine. You've used a filling degree lower than the default, but it's appropriate for these models.

For the Moscow Bank, you've used an invisible building. Considering the original is an immortal lot, this is appropriate for keeping the 3x3 lot size. But it does make the modding a bit trickier. In order to do it all in PIMX, then you'll want to change the Occupant Size of the invisible building to the same size as the actual model, then choose an appropriate filling degree. I would say 0.7, as the model does take up much more than half of the LOD's volume. Once these stats are finalized properly, you should Rebuild the Occupant Size from Model, then click Save and create the lot. This would provide a stage 11 3x3 lot with 3256 CO$$$ jobs.

I have no idea how you came up with the stats you've given the lot. And I don't understand using a smaller filling degree for the model, as it does consume much more than half of the LOD.

[fantozzi]

I can remove my uploads, no prob. I don't want to cause any problems. Sorry I did post here.

[xxdita]

I can remove my uploads, no prob. I don't want to cause any problems. Sorry I did post here.

That seems silly, when I've given you a generally good review. Out of the 3 lots, two are rather perfect. The third you've fixed from its original immortal state.

You should be able to explain any non-conventional choices you've made. The filling degrees for the first two buildings were both spot on. So it's just weird to see that the Moscow Bank is set so low.

LEX Standards are fairly clear, even if we've moved away from the scrutineering process. I am available to help answer any questions, or to help with more advanced modding if necessary.

[fantozzi]

I can remove my uploads, no prob. I don't want to cause any problems. Sorry I did post here.

You should be able to explain any non-conventional choices you've made.

Indeed I can't. I'm afraid I was non-conventional without having the authority to do so. But the more I'm confused now - why was it silly to remove the content then? I made a mistake uploading unworthy stuff. I tried to correct and now I did wrong again ...

That's a really sad moment for me.   

[JahnSpd]

Are groups added in the lot editor supposed to save? Any groups I make from inside the lot editor end up emptying out once I close the window. The group itself remains, but none of the objects/textures remind, the groups are just empty.

I've only been able to get the groups to stay by manually adding them into groups.ini, but I don't actually understand the syntax/format to do it, I just copied/pasted it into the groups.ini from an included text file in the SHK plugin.

Thanks.

[bch000899]

Hi y'all. I just downloaded PIMX and after installing and trying to run the program I get this error. I'm not sure how to fix it.

ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "SC4PIM.py", line 1, in ?
  File "SC4PIMApp.pyo", line 96, in ?
  File "wx\__init__.pyo", line 45, in ?
  File "wx\_core.pyo", line 4, in ?
  File "wx\_core_.pyo", line 12, in ?
  File "wx\_core_.pyo", line 10, in __load

[Andreas]

Please download and install the necessary DLL files as advised in the initial posting of this thread.

[flann]

I recently installed the GOG version of the game and uninstalled the version I had from Steam.   Now PIM-X seems confused:



Even if I uncheck the top two boxes, the program doesn't load any plugins.  I've tried reinstalling PIM-X to no avail.  I am guessing that for some reason it doesn't know where to find the game files, but I am unsure of how to resolve that.  Any ideas?

[flann]

I recently installed the GOG version of the game and uninstalled the version I had from Steam.   Now PIM-X seems confused:



Even if I uncheck the top two boxes, the program doesn't load any plugins.  I've tried reinstalling PIM-X to no avail.  I am guessing that for some reason it doesn't know where to find the game files, but I am unsure of how to resolve that.  Any ideas?

Update, I uninstalled the GOG version of the game and reinstalled it.  It works now.  I  think trying to install the game on top of the Steam installation was a mistake.

In an unrelated note, I discovered that if you have the '&' symbol in a plugins folder name, PIM-X will not load any plugins whatsoever.

[Rott]

So I tried to run PIM-X on my new PC but it's not running, and the download links in the first posting of this thread seem to have expired, anywhere else these are available?

[Girafe]

Have a look there:

https://sc4devotion.com/csxlex/lex_filedesc.php?lotGET=2260

and follow strictly the advice particularly about .dll as they are the source of the software to not run / crash

[mgb204]

So I tried to run PIM-X on my new PC but it's not running, and the download links in the first posting of this thread seem to have expired, anywhere else these are available?

With the exception of the Intel GPU update (Intel don't keep legacy stuff around for long), all the links function fine. None of those in the first post are for the main application though, but you will most likely need the Win7 + updated properties patches. Likewise, I highly recommend the manual, it walks you through most things you might need to do with PIM-X.

Update, I uninstalled the GOG version of the game and reinstalled it.  It works now.  I  think trying to install the game on top of the Steam installation was a mistake.

Indeed, the registry settings would potentially be wrong and so PIM-X doesn't link to the correct location of your install.

[JahnSpd]

For some reason any changes I make in the lot editor preferences groups (including making/deleting groups/adding anything to them) require clicking 'toggle on top' and then clicking it again (so clicking it twice), before closing the window, otherwise no changes are saved. Really odd. No other issues.

Anyway I was wondering if there is some trick to selecting props that are underneath larger props? I've just been moving the larger props out of the way so I can get to the ones underneath but this can be problematic.